Gama, Vasco da

Gama, Vasco da (about 1469-1524), Portuguese explorer.

On 8 July, 1497, Vasco da Gama set out from Lisbon in command of a fleet of four ships. He had a company of two hundred men and food for three years and his task was to reach India by way of South Africa.

Bartholomew Diaz had sailed around the Cape of Good Hope nine years earlier. Beyond that, the route to the East was unknown.

Ten months later, da Gama dropped anchor in the harbour at Calicut (present-day Kozhikode) in India.

Twice during the voyage he was out of sight of land for more than three months. This was longer than any sailor before him. On his voyage to the West Indies in 1492, Christopher Columbus was out of sight of land for only thirty-three days.

In 1502 and 1503, da Gama repeated his voyage and founded rich Portuguese trading settlements in India.

After that, for twenty years, he was an adviser to King Manuel of Portugal.

In 1524, he was sent to India to look after the settlements there. He had only just arrived when he died.

See Katharine Bailey Vasco Da Gama